


Pivot

by cobaltexpositor



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: CC-1010 | Fox Needs A Hug, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, This is Flybynite19's fault, and a nap, cute shenanigans, swivel chair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27376273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltexpositor/pseuds/cobaltexpositor
Summary: Pivot: (Noun) A person of thing that plays a central part in an activity or organization.Fox is busy dealing with putting out yet another wildfire, refusing medical attention. Riyo isn't having it. Gentle chiding, tending to a loved one's wounds, close proximity to one another, longing, a swivel chair. We got it all here, folks!
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 22
Kudos: 104





	Pivot

**Author's Note:**

> This is fully inspired by @flybynite19 's "sketch" (yes this is a callout) of Fox and Riyo having a tender moment. The swivel chair is integral to the foxiyo love story.
> 
> Stitch is an OC that someone within the foxiyo sphere created, but he's entered the ship's collective custody.

“Fan out, I want one more sweep of the area for additional explosives,” Fox ordered. The gathered Coruscant Guard shouted out a chorus of “Yes sir!”’s and dispersed along the outside of the Senate Dome. They had just got the chaos from the latest attack under control, but not before Fox had been caught on the edge of one of the blasts while evacuating senators and their aides from the northern wing.

“Sir, I really should take a look at you,” Stitch, their medic, had insisted. Fox had just waved him off, promising that he wasn’t that injured. On a quick self assessment after crawling out of the blast debris, he had counted bruised ribs, various burns along his joints where his armor didn’t cover him, a scrape above his eyebrow and along his chin. He’d be fine, he just needed to make sure his job was done before he could stop and rest.

Like his job was ever done.

These Separatist attacks on the Senate were getting bolder and more frequent, with Fox preventing a crisis nearly once a week now. He was exhausted.

“Commander, we’ve finished our sweep,” Thire chirped over the comm. “No sign of any more explosives. I think we’re in the clear.”

“Send in the repair crew and start escorting the evacuated senators back to their offices. Are they all accounted for?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, I’m going to do another sweep inside the halls. Good work, men.” Fox switched off his comm.

“Commander, I really should check you over your injuries,” Stitch argued.

“No,” Fox said firmly. “Go back to medical and take care of the men there more injured than me. I’ll be fine.”

Stitch clearly wanted to try and convince him some more, but he gave up before he started and he walked away. He’d spend more time fighting with Fox to get help than he would actually helping him.

Luckily, the blasts had done relatively little damage to the interior of the Senate. Fox walked the empty halls, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Though it was becoming more difficult to concentrate on his task with his growing headache. He gritted his teeth and pushed through.

The further away he traveled from the explosion site, he saw more senatorial aides running back to their employers’ offices to grab important documents left behind in the evacuation.

“Fox!” a voice called out, and he turned to see Riyo Chuchi walking quickly towards him. His stomach fluttered. He would normally be happy to see one of the few people he considers his friend, but she really shouldn’t be in the building. The danger had passed, but Fox would feel much better knowing she was safe and sound far away from the Senate.

“Senator, is everything alright?” Fox kept a veneer of professionalism out in the exposed hallway. It had been like pulling teeth to get him to call her “Riyo”, and that was still only for when they were alone. Still dangerous, still too close, in his opinion.

“I’m fine, I was just coming back for my datapads. I was trying to remember what I had meant to do before we were evacuated. But are  _ you _ alright?” She reached up to place a steadying hand on his bicep, which sent sparks down his arm despite the heavy layers separating their skin. “You look awful.”

Riyo had the unnerving ability to read his mood and general well being even when he had his bucket shielding his face. It was incredibly inconvenient.

“I’m fine,” he lied, badly. His head throbbed, and he swayed ever so slightly on his feet.

Riyo narrowed her eyes, clearly not believing him. She pulled away her hand from his armor plates, inspecting the grey dust that pulled away with her. “You’re covered in soot.”

“I was caught at the edge of the second blast, but it didn’t-”

“You what?!” she interrupted, looking up into his visor with horror. “You should be in medical!”

“There are men more injured than me that need their attention.”

Riyo’s face changed yet again into a furrowed look of displeasure. Fox always thought it was cute how expressive she was. He shook away that thought before it could fully form. Lost in his own mind for a minute, he didn’t realize she had grabbed his hand until she was pulling him down the hall.

“Come with me.” They rounded the corner and she punched in the code to her office, and dragged him into the room and to her desk. There was a delicate chair on a swivel placed for guests on the opposite side of her desk, which she turned to the side. She practically pushed him into the chair, which squeaked under his weight. “Sit,” she ordered, and any protest died on his lips as he heard the bite in her tone. Was she angry at him?

Riyo rounded her desk and rifled through the drawers. She pulled out a large pouch that Fox recognized as a first aid kit and came back around to stand in front of him. She opened the pouch and laid out the various contents along the desk: gauze, bandages, bacta, painkillers.

She lifted her hands to the lip of his helmet, waiting for permission. He nodded quietly, bowing his head slightly to let her take it off with ease. The seal hissed as she removed his helmet and placed it at the corner of the desk. Turning back, she gasped at the blood trickling down the side of his face.

“Fox, how long has that been there?”

“A few hours?” time had become a blur as he rushed around to organize his men.

Riyo sighed, reaching to her pocket to pull out a small white handkerchief. Without hesitation, she took his face in her hands, lifting his chin so she could get a good look at his wounds in the light. Fox desperately attempted to will his cheeks not redden, but to no avail. He opted instead to hope that she didn’t notice the blush.

With methodical yet gentle movements, she started to wipe away the blood caked along the side of his face. She stepped in between his knees, getting closer to see what she was doing. Fox is pretty sure he stopped breathing, but that couldn’t be true because he was still smelling her soft floral perfume. She was so close, closer than she’d ever been. He leaned as far as he could in the small chair, the joints continuing to creak as he did. Riyo just scooted closer, knees pressing against the edge of the chair.

Fox gripped the armor plates on his thighs, unsure of what else to do with his hands.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” Riyo whispered, and Fox could feel her breath against his forehead. He avoided eye contact with her, shame and guilt rising in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered back. And he was. He had figured out a long time ago that he would do anything to keep Riyo from being unhappy, he couldn’t bear to have her any less than content. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

A small smile tugged at her lips as she cleaned up the last of the blood. The scrapes weren’t as bad as they had initially seemed, head wounds always bleed a lot. Riyo coated each cut with a small layer of bacta, and Fox couldn’t help the way his eyes fluttered closed at the feeling of the pads of her fingers against his skin. She always treated him like he was the most precious thing in the galaxy. At the beginning of their friendship, Fox had tried to not get used to it. Nothing good in his life ever lasted long. Riyo, like in most things she does, proved to be the exception.

“Does your head hurt anywhere else?” she asked. He shook his head “no”, but she ran her fingers through his hair to check for hidden cuts anyway. His breath hitched involuntarily and he immediately cringed internally. Riyo’s hand paused, she had definitely noticed.

“Does that hurt?” she pressed gently against the spot in his hair that she had stopped.

“No.” Fox couldn’t help it anymore, looking up into Riyo’s eyes. His palms itched under his gloves as he resisted the urge to reach out for her. In that moment, with mere inches separating the two of them, Fox was struck by the fierce longing he felt. He had never wanted anything so badly, and of course it was the one thing he couldn’t have.

Riyo scanned his face, searching for meaning as she traced along his jaw with the hand not in his hair. Fox watched as her expression changed to one of realization, mouth parting slightly in surprise. His stomach filled with dread. She knows. Of course she does. He waited for her to back away from him in disgust, to tell him to get away from her.

But she didn’t. If anything, she moved even closer into his space. “Fox,” she said, glancing down at his lips for a moment. In a moment of bravery, Fox brought up one hand to rest feather-light against her waist. He waited, letting Riyo take the lead. Moving the rest of the way to Fox, she pressed a chaste kiss against his lips.

Fox’s soul rang out, his heart aching in his chest. If pushed, he could cry in this moment. As soon as the kiss started it was over, Riyo leaning back ever so slightly. She looked for Fox’s reaction to the kiss, making sure she hadn’t made a terrible judgement call. Fox responded to her silent inquiry by surging up to kiss her more passionately, both his arms now coming up to firmly wrap around her waist.

She was smiling against his kiss, bringing her hands to the back of his neck. She brought herself up to kneel in the small space of the chair between Fox’s legs, wanting to press flush against him. Fox leant back even further to give her more space to maneuver.

The chair loudly protested before the swivel joint bent and sent the couple careening to the floor in a loud crash. Thinking fast, Fox made sure Riyo was pulled completely on top of him so he would take the brunt of the fall. Riyo, thinking just as fast, tucked Fox’s head to her chest so he wouldn’t crack his skull on the floor.

Fox’s armor took most of the bite out of the fall, but he still groaned as it jostled his bruised ribs. They laid there on the carpeted floor, keeping still as they made sure nothing else was going to give out from under them or fall on top of them.

“Are you alright?” she asked, to which Fox nodded.

Riyo, realizing something, huffed in annoyance. “That’s what I forgot, I was going to make a maintenance request for the chair.” They looked to each other and immediately started laughing, overcome with the ridiculousness of the situation they had found themselves in. In her fit of giggles, she dropped her forehead to rest against his.

“As far as first kisses go, I think that might have been more eventful than what people normally go for,” Fox commented as his laughing subsided. Riyo carefully stood up, offering her hand to help him stand as well.

“Would you like to do a second take?” twin hints of playfulness and hoping and in her voice.

Fox leaned in, bringing her into his arms and smiling. The ache of his various cuts, burns, and bruises had dulled, replaced with an incredible feeling of weightlessness. He could not believe she wanted him too, wanted to care for him, clean his wounds and kiss him. But she did, she was a good thing that Fox knew would last.

“I’d like that very much, Riyo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Please go give @flybynite19 and her swivel chair art (and all her other art) some love.


End file.
